Bucks or Bounty is back and better than ever, and as is the standard of the archers competing.
This weekend's competition held at Lilleshall was the first stage of the Archery GB 2021 National Tour, all leading up to the coveted finals later on in the season.
After a day of impressive shooting, the final four going into the semi-finals were Michael Judd, Steve Kent, Ryan Holden, and Conor Hall. The first pairing was Judd and Holden where Judd won six set points to four, sending him on his way to the gold medal match.
The second semi-final pairing was Kent and Hall. Kent was able to win and only let Hall earn two set points in the process. For the bronze, the competitors were tightly matched throughout. Hall secured himself the win with six set points to Holden's four. In the gold, Judd dominated the match, winning three consecutive sets earning him the title for the recurve men.
For the recurve women, the final four were Yulia Larkins, Bryony Pitman, Louis Piper, and Jaspreet Sagoo. Larkins and Piper were up first for the semi-finals. Larkins won the match to get to the gold final with three straight sets. In the adjacent match, Pitman and Sagoo were closely matched throughout. Sagoo fought for four set points, but in the end, it was Pitman who won 6-4.
In the bronze, Sagoo came up against Piper and only let her opponent get one set point to her seven, earning her the bronze medal. Going for the gold, Larkins fought for her four set points, but it wasn't enough to beat Pitman who won the gold medal and the title 6-4.
Full results can be found here.
On Sunday, it was the compound and barebow archers' turn for a shot at the win for the first stage of the National Tour. For the men, the final four were Kai Thomas-Prause, Chris White, James Mason, and Oskars Lock.
In the semi-finals, Mason and Thomas-Prause had a very closely fought match, but it was Thomas-Prause who won with one spare point, 143-142. White and Lock shot for the other space in the gold medal match, and it was White who earned the spot with a 144 to Lock's 142.
For the bronze medal match, Mason steadily increases his lead until the final end where he scored 144 to Lock's 141, winning him third place. In the gold final, Thomas-Prause also got himself a lead over White to win the match with a solid six points to spare and awarding him the title for the compound men.
On the other side of the field, the compound women's semi-finals comprised of Ella Gibson, Layla Annison, Hallie Boulton, and myself. Boulton started in the lead against Gibson. But unfortunately, she dropped a few too many points in the final two ends. Which meant she narrowly missed out on the gold match with 143 points to Gibson's 146. On the next-door targets, myself and Layla Annison shot against one another and Annison scored a 144 to my 140.
In the bronze, Boulton and I had a well-fought match, but in the end, I gained a three-point lead to take the win, 143-140. For the gold, Gibson and Annison kept each other on their toes the whole way through. This match was won with a three-point lead by Gibson with 145 points to Annison's 142.
The barebow men had a good turnout at the first stage of the National Tour. The top four were Richard Heathcote, Tom Williams, Marc-Andre Hache and Ralph Barwise. Fourth seed Williams took the win 6-0 over first seed Heathcote to head into the gold medal match. Second seed Barwise took the win 6-2 over sixth seed Hache to join Williams in the gold medal match.
The bronze medal was hard-fought with Heathcote taking the medal 7-3 over Hache. The gold medal match was won in straight sets with Barwise taking the win.
The Barebow women's division was won by Amanda Rose, who shot 269 in qualification.
Full results can be found here.
Thank you to the sponsors for the 2021 season:
More details about the National Tour 2021 can be found here.
